From Jeremiah yesterday came this splendid New York Times article about these architectural oddities which proliferate in the Taishan region of Guangdong province. The fortified towers, pao lou or diao lou, with their eccentric blend of European and Chinese styles, were built in the early years of the twentieth century by wealthy Chinese returning from overseas. There used to be thousands of them, but many have now been knocked down or have fallen into serious disrepair. I daresay you might be able to pick one up at quite a reasonable price. Yes, my fantasies are running riot again. You see, I think one of those places might just about be big enough for all my stuff... |
3 comments:
There's one area in Guangdong with a lot of these in decent condition. I think the town is Kaiping--it was named a World Heritage Site about a year ago.
Amazing how this became such a pervasive vogue - several thousands of the things built in just a few short years, and in one relatively small area of the country. I hadn't heard of them before. Would love to go and take a look.
awesome. just awesome.
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